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That's No Starbase, That's A Moon!
This is the first episode of season two, and following the end of season one, marks the first time Don Trek has been clearly divided into seasons. This also is the first time there has been a crossover with SPACE:1999. Previous episode: A White Horse Next Episode: Thick As Gravy Synopsis While exploring space Capt. Don and crew discover a giant body floating through space. Is it a starbase or is it a moon? The Story “Captain’s log stardate 9510.03: After two enlightening and relaxing months here on the sentient Ponykind world Equestria, and the arrival of the USS ''Witch of Endor with a small scientific team to continue our work until the USS Grand Prix arrives, with both scientific and diplomatic representatives on board, we are set to sail. There’s just been one odd request made by Princess Celestia. It seems that she has asked that we take one of her kind with us on our voyage. While neither I nor Starfleet seem to have a problem with this in and of itself, I tried to explain to Princess Celestia that we are only one year into a five year mission and it could be over a decade till we return this way. While it’s true that other ships would be able to transport whomever she sends with us they will be far from home for a long time. The other issue I’ve got with it is how a pony will be able to function aboard the USS Bonneville? While this is a race of an intelligent and human like species they are still much different. I have been assured that everything will be dealt with on their end.”'' Act One “Are you ready to beam up Capt. Don,” asked Ensign Bobby. “Yeah, I’ll be ready in a minute,” answered Capt. Don, “but I’ve got to wait here for Princess Celestia. It seems like we’re going to have a new member of our crew.” “A pony on the Bonneville?” asked Ensign Bobby. “It would seem so,” laughed Capt. Don. Right then Princess Celestia came around the corner with a pony at her side and they walked up to Capt. Don. “This is Fluttershy,” announced Princess Celestia, “she will be our observer on your vessel. “Hello Fluttershy, I’m Capt. Don. I’m sure you will find our vessel to your liking,” explained the captain, “but I’m quite certain that we will have some challenges to overcome. We’ve never had a crew member with your profile on the Bonneville before.” “Oh, maybe I shouldn’t go,” offered Fluttershy. “No,” answered Capt. Don, “we’re pleased to have you with us!” “It won’t be as complicated as you imagine Capt. Don,” offered Princess Celestia, “just wait a moment.” Right then, in an instant, a sparkling cloud formed around Fluttershy and she was transformed. “You’re,” Capt. Don stuttered, “a humanoid!” “Yes,” answered Fluttershy, “I am.” “This should help ease the transition,” offered Princess Celestia. After a few more farewells and introductions between the new team and old, Capt. Don, the Bonneville away team, and Fluttershy beamed up to the USS Bonneville. When they arrived on board Capt. Don introduced Fluttershy to the yeoman that was assigned to get her settled in and then headed to the bridge. When he arrived Cmdr. Mike was already talking to Cmdr. Ryk of the USS Witch of Endor. “…so that’s what it’s like down there. Don’t just drop these guys off and go, take a look for yourself,” finished Cmdr. Mike. “Maybe I will, it sounds odd, even for us,” responded Cmdr. Ryk. “Take my word for it Ryk,” interjected Capt. Don, “in all of your travels you might not see anything like it.” “Don’t forget Don, where I come from there are some pretty strange things in that area of the galaxy.” “You’ve got a point there,” chuckled Capt. Don, “oh and one more thing, I just watched one of these ponies shift into a humanoid for right in front of my eyes, so no funny business; never know what they’ll turn into next.” “Funny business, me? No funny here!” “Have a good one,” offered Capt. Don, “maybe next time I see you you’ll be a captain and not just a commander.” “Not with a ship this small,” Ryk laughed, “and they’ll have to pry her out of my cold dead hands.” “God speed then, Bonneville out,” smiled Capt. Don as the Acer view screen switched from Cmdr. Ryk to the combination of space and Equestria. “You’ve served with him?” asked Cmdr. Mike. “Not on the same ship but some of our missions crossed paths and we’ve had a few away team joint missions together,” answered Capt. Don. “Well we should be good to go! Lt. Tommy, whatever direction we were going before we stopped here would be a good start." Act Two “Captain’s log stardate 9510.05: After a couple days in space things are returning to normal for the crew after our long stay at Equestria. Lt. Solok has identified a system with a few mineral rich planets for us to do some research with. It’ll be standard fare as none of them support human life. Our guest Fluttershy has been doing well I suppose, though I do think she’s a bit homesick. I also think her name fits her quite well, she’s very shy. I’m starting to think that perhaps Princess Celestia might have picked the wrong pony to explore space. Either way I am sure she'll adjust. In fact she's been dining with Cmdr. Mike and I in the captain’s dining room the last two nights and she's visibly less nervous each time.” “Cmdr. Mike, a large body of rock is being detected near our flight path,” reported Lt. Solok. “Is it a ship or a meteor?” Lt. Solok answered, “it is too large to be a ship or a meteor. At first I thought it was some kind of starbase, but it is about the size of Earth’s moon.” “That’s odd, a mass of rock floating through space roughly the size of Earth’s moon? Maybe it’s an advanced base of some kind?” “Perhaps it is, Cmdr. Mike,” agreed Lt. Solok, “but none of our advanced probes detected any type of advanced cultures in the immediate vicinity. I recommend we alter our course and investigate.” “I agree,” acknowledged Cmdr. Mike, “Lt. Drew make a course change,” Mike looked at the time and continued, “Ensign Becca, inform Capt. Don of the change.” Meanwhile in the USS Bonneville’s arboretum Capt. Don was introducing their new observer to what wildlife they had on the ship. “This is the ‘forest of the Bonneville’ as we call it. Many different kinds of trees, water, and fish, some small animals, and places for the crew members to enjoy themselves while not on duty. Many of them also work here too; we don’t really have an assigned crew member due to serveral of them wishing to do it voluntarily.” “This place is wonderful, I never thought anything like this would be on a spaceship!” exclaimed Fluttershy, rather shyly. “Well you’re welcome to spend as much time here as you can,” offered Capt. Don. “Look! There's a rabbit over there and a butterflies and small birds over there.” “Capt. Don, please contact the bridge,” called out Ensign Becca’s voice. “Sorry, I've to get that,” Capt. Don excused himself to talk to whomever wished to speak to him on the bridge. “This is Capt. Don, what’s up?” “Cmdr. Mike wanted me to let you know we've found a large mass approximately the size of the Earth’s moon floating through local space and he’s changed course,” reported Ensign Becca. “Okay then, tell Cmdr. Mike I’ll be there in a bit,” Capt. Don switched the wall mounted communication panel off. “Is there something wrong Capt. Don?” asked Fluttershy. “No,” answered Capt. Don, “just more of what we do out here. As we get closer to the object we’ve discovered I’ll call for you to come to the bridge and see it.” When Capt. Don arrived at the bridge the object was just a speck on the screen. “How much further till we can get a good view of it?” “About fifteen minutes,” answered Lt. Solok. “What about the probes,” asked Capt. Don, “any images back from them?” “We have received some geographical imaging data,” answered Lt. Solok, “but no actual imaged of the object.” “Could something on the surface be blocking our cameras?” “If there is something blocking us they are hiding themselves too,” responded Lt. Solok, “as no life signs have been detected.” “I can’t remember ever seeing something this size just float through space before. The Voyager probe and the Whale probe were big but they wern't just masses floating through space, they're something more,” Capt. Don thought aloud. “Do any of you have any theories?” “Maybe it’s what’s left of a giant comet?” offered Cmdr. Mike. “Or maybe your first assumption was correct Cmdr. Mike,” offered Solok, “maybe it is some kind of base.” “Why the change of heart?” asked Cmdr. Mike. “Because not even our second more advanced probe is able to get anything other than geographical imaging data,” he answered, “still no pictures.” Capt. Don and the crew didn’t have to wait much longer as the USS Bonneville sailed closer to the object and its true size was revealed. “It’s enormous,” observed Capt. Don, “can we get a better visual than this?” “In a few moments sir,” answered Lt. Solok. “It does seem as if there is a dampning field of some kind covering parts of the mass.” “Can our ship sensors get through?” asked Capt. Don. “They should,” answered Lt. Solok, “our ship’s sensors are much more powerful than the probes. Focusing in on the mass’ surface right now.” Capt. Don and the bridge crew of the USS Bonneville were taken aback at what their eyes witnessed. “That’s no moon,” declared Cmdr. Mike, “that’s a base of some kind!” “Or it is both,” answered Lt. Solok. Act Three “That right there, Fluttershy, is what we believe to be a base on a detached moon,” explained Capt. Don to their new observer. “I thought moons orbited planets?” “They do,” answered the captain, “at least they’re supposed to do that. Lt. Solok believes that this moon might've been blown out of orbit by some event. Look at the surface as we fly around it, there's a large chunk missing. We don’t know why it’s missing but we think that’s where the explosion occurred.” “So what are you going to do?” “We’re going to go down there and explore the base that’s on that moon and try to find out exactly what happened,” answered Capt. Don. “Do I have to go?” asked Fluttershy. “Oh no,” said Capt. Don as he shook his head, “you can’t, it’s far too dangerous.” “Good,” she responded, “I don’t think I’m ready.” “Cmdr. Mike, Lt. Solok, Ensign Becca, Ensign Bobby, and I will be taking a shuttle over there and seeing what we can find. Lt. Tommy will be in command of the ship while we’re gone. You can stay on the bridge and watch from the engineering station, there’s no one there now. You don’t have to stay on the bridge; if you get bored just go do your thing.” Capt. Don and the away team took leave of the bridge and replacement officers took their spots as Fluttershy watched the “moon” on the main view screen. When the away team’s shuttle landed they exited in full space suits. “I hate these damn things,” Cmdr. Mike complained, “I like the personal force field environmental things myself.” “I don’t think you need to be reminded commander,” offered Lt. Solok, “but we do not know what dangers we might face here, these suits can protect us from debris much better than a personal shield that is designed for planet side expeditions.” “It’s harder to maneuver in these,” declared Ensign Bobby. “I’m glad for them,” offered Ensign Emily, “the more protection the better.” “Okay Lt. Solok, Cmdr. Mike, let’s see if we can get this port open,” said Capt. Don as he grabbed the round port handle. Slowly the handle started to turn after the Vulcan and two Human men fought with it for about ten minutes. When the door opened Ensign Bobby insisted he take the lead for security reasons. After the landing party got in the building they were amazed and fascinated by what they saw. “This is a fully equipped moon base,” reported Lt. Solok. “It’s that alright,” agreed Cmdr. Mike, “but this technology is ancient.” “It’s also dusty,” commented Ensign Bobby. “I think this language is structured in a manner that shouldn’t be too hard to decipher, give me a little while and the computer and I should get it down pretty fast,” reported Ensign Becca. “I honestly thought it would be in worse shape than this,” said Capt. Don, “this place looks great minus the dust.” “It’s my best logical deduction that this type of technology might fit your Earth history as being from anywhere between 1999 to the 2020’s,” offered Lt. Solok. “Let’s do what we can to access their logs and see what happened,” ordered Capt. Don. “If we can,” said Cmdr. Mike as he inspected the power cells and the general state of the equipment. Capt. Don pulled out his communicator and called the USS Bonneville ordering, “send Mr. Bourbon down here with a universal power transfer conduit and some power packs.” As they continued their exploration of the empty moon base they discovered the crew quarters and cataloged their findings. “Capt. Don,” called out Ensign Bobby, “these people were clearly humanoid; their clothes are just like ours.” “Yes ensign they are,” Capt. Don held a uniform of one of the long past crew members in his hand. His communicator chirped and he answered it. “This is Ensign Becca, I think we’ve got enough for the computer to fill in the gaps.” “Great,” answered the captain, “I’ll be right over.” When Capt. Don walked up beside of Ensign Becca she was reading some faded writing on a piece of paper. “Captain, I think the last time anyone was on this base was over a hundred fifty years ago!” “What lead you to that conclusion,” asked Capt. Don, “there’s nothing working on this rock to give us any indication?” “That’s what I thought sir,” she answered, “but look at this small clock, it’s still running!” “That’s amazing! Cmdr. Mike, Solok, come over here and check this out,” called Capt. Don. “That is a working time keeping device,” observed Lt. Solok, “if we had a point of reference we might be able to estimate when this base was abandoned.” “That’s the great thing,” exclaimed Ensign Becca, “this document has a date on it!” Mr. Bourbon interrupted saying, “I hope you can get some information out of that because there’s no use trying to power this equipment up.” “Isn’t there any hope at all of accessing their logs or any of their data?” asked Capt. Don. “Sure,” grumbled Mr. Bourbon, “it could take weeks or years though, from here. Now back on the ship I might be able to get it done in a time frame of weeks to months.” “Well I can answer one thing,” offered Ensign Becca, “this station has been abandoned for almost two-hundred years. While you were talking to Mr. Bourbon I discovered that these papers were out of order and the dating system is a little odd, but these people had what seems to be a happy ending!” “What happened?” asked Cmdr. Mike. “From what I can tell, and it’s not clear in these papers, this was a moon base orbiting a home world much like Earth. There was an explosion and it caused the moon, this moon, to break orbit and fly through space, or something like that, from what I can gather.” “Well that settles it,” declared Capt. Don, “I want a full science team on this moon base right away and we need to catalog and preserve what we can.” Capt. Don flipped open his communicator and called out, “Capt. Don to Lt. Jenna,” he waited and then gave her his orders, “I need to know where this moon is going; I need to know its projected course.” Act Four The crew of the USS Bonneville was hard at work cataloging and collecting data and making visual recordings of the abandoned moon base. Both science and engineering teams were taking samples and learning about the race that once occupied it. The history department under the chief historian Lt. Holly worked side by side with the communications department to learn as much as they could from fiction, history, and personal writings found on the base. Lt. Jenna was working on predicting probable courses for the moon to take as it continued its unmanned voyage through space when something quite alarming was discovered. She took the news to Capt. Don right away. “Capt. Don,” reported Jenna, “I know precisely where this moon is going to end up.” “Oh, then tell me.” “This moon,” she said, “is going to end up in a star and it won’t take but a year for it to get there.” Capt. Don looked up from his office desk and responded, “seriously?” “As a heart attack, captain.” “Well I guess I should call Starfleet and see what they want to do then,” remarked Capt. Don. “What can they do?” “Honestly Lt. Jenna, I’ve got no idea. I imagine they'll tell us to keep recording and learning what we can from it till we’ve gotten it all recorded or we’ve got to get out of the way,” answered Capt. Don. As Lt. Jenna left Capt. Don’s office Fluttershy entered. “Hello Capt. Don,” she said as she approached his desk. “Yes,” answered Don, “so I told you when we deemed it safe you could go to the moon’s surface. Now it’s safe, we’ve even set up an atmosphere so our teams don’t have to be in space suits, do you want to beam over there?” “Oh I don’t know,” thought Fluttershy aloud, “I’m kind of scared.” “That’s understandable,” acknowledged Capt. Don, “if you do decide to go just let Lt. Camcorder know and she’ll take you.” The next day Fluttershy got up the courage to go over to the abandoned moon base and called for Lt. Camcorder. The two of them beamed over to the moon base. “Oh my, this is spooky,” commented Fluttershy. “Yes, I guess it is,” answered Lt. Camcorder. “You don’t think it’s spooky,” Fluttershy asked, “you must be very brave?” “I would not say that,” returned Lt. Camcorder, “I am an android. Or you might prefer the term robot.” “So you don’t have feelings,” asked Fluttershy, “you can’t be afraid?” “No, I cannot be afraid,” answered Lt. Camcorder and then she asked, “what is it like to be on a moon like this for you? Have you ever been on something like this before?” “No, I’ve never been off of Equestria till this trip,” answered Fluttershy. “Could we go back now, I think this is enough for today.” “No problem,” answered Lt. Camcorder. The next day Capt. Don got the word from Starfleet via Adm. Kevin. “It’s an amazing discovery Capt. Don but all that can be done is what you’re doing. Just keep it up till you’ve gotten as much as you can, launch a probe to warn others where the base is heading, and ascertain if we should try to track down these people or not.” “No problem Adm. Kevin, we shouldn’t be much longer and we've a team working on the data storage access issues and the power supply issue too. I’m afraid we won’t know as much about this place as we’d like until we're long past it,” reported Capt. Don. “Just do what you can and move on,” commented Adm. Kevin, “talk to you later.” That evening Capt. Don met with the command staff and told them what the plan was. Every department was to up their efforts so they could get the task done as soon as possible. Mr. Bourbon would have all the time he needed to get the data packs powered and the data transferred due to everything being transport to the Bonneville. On the bridge of the USS Bonneville Capt. Don and Cmdr. Mike looked at the once again abandon moon and its base as it floated away from them. “Do you think we’ll ever be able to access that data?” asked Cmdr. Mike. “I don’t know,” answered Capt. Don, “but from what Ensign Emily and Lt. Holly noted in their reports those people seemed to have had a happy ending. What we may never know is what happened on their home world after its moon was blasted out of orbit. I can’t imagine it was good.” “I wonder if we’ll ever stumble upon their old world on our journey,” asked Cmdr. Mike, “or maybe their new one?” “When you’re exploring uncharted space anything can happen… “Captain’s log stardate 9510.30: We’ve arrived in an unusual binary star system with one planet orbiting the two stars and despite the planets dark and murky complexion Lt. Solok assures us that it's safe to beam down and explore without full suits. Despite our excitement at exploring this new world something has come up from earlier this month. It seems that the joint efforts of Mr. Bourbon, Lt. Holly, and Ensign Becca have given us quite a bit of information regarding the ‘derelict’ moon base we last encountered. It seems the name of the base was Moonbase Alpha, its leader was a Cmdr. John, and their home world was a planet much like Earth. A series of nuclear explosions sent them soaring off into space with no hope of returning home and not knowing what they would find there if they did. In addition to that they did find a home and named it Terra Alpha. Who knows maybe one day either this ship or another Starfleet vessel may find it, now on to this murky world!” Background Information